Nina DiSesa: How do we know that advertising works?

Nina DiSesa has worked in the quintessential boys clubs of advertising for almost thirty years. In 1994, she became the first woman EVP, Executive Creative Director for McCann Erickson New York, the flagship office of the largest advertising agency in the world. Under her creative leadership, the New York office enjoyed an unprecedented 5-year growth period adding almost $2.5 billion in billings. In 1998, she was made Chairman as well as Chief Creative Officer of McCann New York. She was the first woman and first creative director to be named chairman in the McCann global network.

In 1999, Nina was chosen by Fortune magazine as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in American Business.” In 2005, she received the Matrix Award, given each year to a select group of women in communication. In 2007, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for CEBA (Creative Excellence in Business Advertising).

06 March, 2008

Nina DiSesa: Well I think that return on the investment is something that the clients are of most concerned about obviously, they are spending a lot of money to advertise to the right audiences. The package groups clients, the clients that have universal messages and that are mass marketed in appeal to mass audiences there have a pretty effective way of measuring the effectiveness of their commercials. The big question there is just do we start creating commercials that will test well and not commercials that are bright and clever and engage the consumer and then the really good creative people are the ones who can do both. It’s very hard to test a branding commercial, commercials that are not selling a specific service or product that are just trying to enhance on brand because there is no way, what we do have ways of measuring a brand’s success, we have this tons tons of marketing companies that do these tracking studies so that we know where there are brand, where a brand lies in the minds of the consumer. So there is always ways of measuring things and the clients who are spending some much money on their messaging are not going to spend money if they are not relatively sure that the messaging they are using is effective and its reaching their goal. So I don’t know how anybody can think that advertising is not measurable. The vein of our existence is creative people is that its constantly being measured and we are rewarded based on our ability to reach these consumers and motivate them and change their behavior and make the brand their brand, and make the products their products. So that’s what the business is about that’s what the whole business is about, is measuring the effectiveness of our ideas. Recorded on: 2/29/08